In Effective Java inside the item "Item 22: Favor static member classes over nonstatic" Josh Bloch says:
Each instance of a nonstatic member class is implicitly associated with an enclosing instance of its containing class. Within instance methods of a nonstatic member class, you can invoke methods on the enclosing instance or obtain a reference to the enclosing instance using the qualified this construct.
What does he mean by Qualified This Construct?
Without the qualifier, x() would recurse. With the qualifier, the enclosing instance's x() method is invoked instead.
class Envelope {
void x() {
System.out.println("Hello");
}
class Enclosure {
void x() {
Envelope.this.x(); /* Qualified*/
}
}
}
A non-static member class has an implicit reference to an instance of the enclosing class. The Qualified This term refers to the instance of the enclosing class. If the enclosing class is A, and the inner class is B, you can address the enclosing reference of A from B as A.this.
